Jacket Housing of exhaust gas device of a motor vehicle

ABSTRACT

Jacket housing of an exhaust gas device of a motor vehicle, particularly an exhaust muffler or an exhaust gas catalyst of an automobile, with a jacket manufactured from a sheet blank. At least the longitudinal connection of the jacket manufactured from the sheet blank includes a laser weld seam.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] Not applicable.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

[0002] Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] The invention relates to a jacket housing of an exhaust gasdevice of a motor vehicle, particularly an exhaust muffler or an exhaustgas catalyst of an automobile in wrapped construction, with a jacketmanufactured from a sheet blank.

[0004] Technical Field

[0005] Housings of exhaust mufflers or exhaust gas catalysts of wrappedor jacket construction for motor vehicles, and also exhaust gas housingparts such as connecting pipes, pipe unions, or connecting funnels, withelevated requirements for strength, shape stability and quality, areconstituted according to the state of the art from sheet blanks, eithersingle-walled with large wall thickness, or double-walled from two sheetblanks, and are connected along the connecting places by folding.Additional stiffening ribs or creases in the housing part provide foradditional stability, if necessary. The production of both double-walledhousing parts and also single-walled housing parts with comparativelylarge wall thickness of a sheet blank, and also the production of thefold connections, is expensive in time and cost. Fold connections do notseal effectively in all cases of operation, and require constructionalspace and material. Altogether, much material is necessary for asufficiently stable construction of a well sealed exhaust gas housing.The disadvantages are high material costs, increased weight of theexhaust gas device, and also high gasoline consumption of the motorvehicle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] The invention has as its object to provide a jacket housing of anexhaust gas device of a motor vehicle, of the kind stated at thebeginning, which is distinguished by a simple, well sealed, and lightconstruction and likewise has a good visual appearance.

[0007] This object is attained by a jacket housing of an exhaust gasdevice of a motor vehicle, particularly an exhaust muffler or an exhaustgas catalyst of an automobile, with a jacket manufactured from a sheetblank, wherein at least the longitudinal connection of the jacketmanufactured from the sheet blank includes a laser weld seam.

[0008] A fundamental aspect of the invention is the laser welding of ajacket housing, particularly of an exhaust muffler or exhaust gascatalyst of a motor vehicle, in wrapped construction.

[0009] In particular, the present invention provides at least thelongitudinal connection of the jacket manufactured from the sheet blankwith a laser weld seam.

[0010] The jacket is preferably constituted from at least two blanks,which are assembled in abutment, double-walled or multiple-walled,and/or overlapping, and are laser welded at the connecting edges.

[0011] If the jacket housing has pipe unions or connecting funnels, endbottoms and/or inner intermediate bottoms, preferably also thesecomponents of the jacket housing, with the jacket, are connectedtogether by laser weld seams.

[0012] Preferably all the connecting places of the jacket housing arelaser welded.

[0013] A jacket housing can advantageously designed by means of theinvention, particularly a jacket housing of an exhaust muffler or anexhaust gas catalyst, to be light, quick, well sealed, visuallyflawless, and in particular variably and in a light construction,without having to accept losses of constructional space due to foldconnections and mounting disadvantages which are present with knownjacket housings. The exhaust gas housing parts are preferably partiallyreinforced in wall thickness, only at those places at which specialrequirements for strength are set, by means of double arrangement ofindividual metal sheets or by overlapping of single sheets, or by thearrangement of an individual metal sheet which is thicker there, and arerapidly and securely connected by laser welding without great cost. Atall other places, the wall thickness of the sheet blanks or of theindividual metal sheets is small, so that, with the wall reductionthere, in all a weight reduction and a saving of material result.According to the prior art, with a single-walled construction of anexhaust gas housing part, a greater thickness of an individual metalsheet or of a sheet blank had to be designed there, or a double-walledconstruction had to be used instead.

[0014] Multi-part sheet blanks are assembled from additional metalsheets, cut to size, and laser welded, even before a wrapping into thefinal form. The high quality weld seam withstands the bending process orwrapping process of the sheet blank into the final form. The functioningof the manufactured exhaust gas housing part is also improved. Formufflers, an additional muffler volume is provided. The tool cost oflaser welding is comparatively small. Shorter cycle times can also beattained in production.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] The invention is described in more detail hereinbelow withreference to the accompanying drawing.

[0016]FIG. 1 in a first embodiment variant, is a schematic partial crosssection of a laser-welded jacket housing of an exhaust muffler withdouble-walled longitudinal reinforcement,

[0017]FIG. 2 in a second embodiment variant, is a schematic axialpartial cross section of a jacket housing with a laser-welded bottom andjacket-side multiple sheet blank, and

[0018]FIG. 3 is a diagram of a laser-welded pipe union of a jackethousing in a schematic axial partial section similar to FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0019] According to FIG. 1, a jacket housing 1 of an exhaust gas deviceof a motor vehicle in the form of an exhaust muffler includes a jacket 2manufactured from a two-part or multi-part sheet blank, the wrappedlongitudinal edges of the said jacket being overlapped and connectedtogether by a laser weld seam 3. The jacket 2 is assembled in abutment,double-walled or multiple-walled, and/or overlapping, and is also laserwelded at the connecting places there. Also an intermediate bottom 9extending in the transverse direction is connected at the edge on theinside by a laser weld seam 12 to the jacket 2.

[0020] According to FIG. 2, a jacket consisting of a wrapped multiplesheet blank is connected peripherally to an axial end bottom 8 by alaser weld seam 10.

[0021] According to FIG. 3, a conically vaulted connecting funnel 7 isconnected to an end bottom 8 of the jacket housing by a laser weld seam11. The widened circular peripheral edge (situated below, not shown inthe drawing) of the connecting funnel 7 is axially aligned with acylindrical jacket part and connected in abutment, likewise by a laserweld seam. The jacket part is manufactured from an integral sheet blank,laser welded in the longitudinal direction, in wrapped constructionmode.

1. Jacket housing (1) of an exhaust gas device of a motor vehiclecomprising a jacket manufactured from a sheet blank, wherein at least alongitudinal connection of the jacket (2) is manufactured from the sheetblank and comprises a laser weld seam (3).
 2. Jacket housing accordingto claim 1, wherein the exhaust gas device comprises an exhaust muffleror an exhaust gas catalyst of an automobile.
 3. Jacket housing accordingto claim 1, wherein the jacket (2) comprises at least two cut blanks (5,6) which are assembled in at least one of abutment, double-walled ormultiple-walled, and/or overlapping, and are laser welded at connectingedges.
 4. Jacket housing according to claim 1, wherein at least one ofpipe unions, connecting funnels (7), end bottoms (8) and innerintermediate bottoms (9) of the jacket housing (1) with the jacket (2)are connected together by laser weld seams (10, 11, 12).
 5. Jackethousing according to claim 1, wherein all connection places of thejacket housing (1) are laser welded.